Congi, who spent six years in Saskatchewan, missed all of last season with a knee injury and was replaced by Chris Milo. Saskatchewan released Congi in December.
Congi will battle it out with untested second-year man Josh Maveety to see who will replace the Justin Medlock. Should Congi not win the kicking job outright, he could stick with the team as their Punter.
This is a good signing by the Cats; they needed to bring in a proven player to compete for the job with Mavetty, if only as insurance. Should Congi win the job, the team would have amazing ratio flexibility – something they have lacked in recent years with an import player holding at least one of the kicking jobs (Medlock, Nick Setta and Eric Wilbur) – with a non-import performing both kicking duties. This is the silver lining of losing Medlock to Carolina.
If Congi can come back from the injury that cost him his job and 2011 season, he could be a great asset to the Cats. At worst, we'll know that whoever wins the kicking job in Training Camp is the best man for the job.
I personally am not a fan of Congi. I feel that he does not have a strong enough leg for FGs. He is pretty good 40 yards in, as are most kickers, but his leg is barely strong enough for 45 yarders and don't even talk about 50 yarders. I know he's around 80% accuracy but what is his avg fg yardage? from 40 in? 50 in?
ReplyDeleteAlso, I know it's a load but it would be interesting to see how many times they punted instead of going for a FG.
With Medlock, once the ball crossed over the 55, you knew that he had a chance to make it. Now with Congi, I think we are going to have to be inside the 35. That's 20 yards.
I really wish the Cats would have signed Wilbur or attempted to trade for him since Medlock signed.
I would rather bring Setta back.
In the CFL, it does not make any sense to have 2 guys kicking. With Congi, we would need a punter. 34.5 yard punting avg doesn't cut it for me. I have seen enough of Maveety to pass any judgement.
Our kicking game is starting to scare me. I do hope that it all works out but the kicking game is huge in the CFL.
Guess we'll have to wait and see.
A CFL kicker is money because the games can often be so close or come down to the wire.
ReplyDeleteBut personally, I feel that if we can't get the ball in past the 40 and have to try for FGs too often, this team isn't going anywhere anyway. With the weapons we have on offense, we had better be scoring a lot of touchdowns.
However, Congi has kicked some long ones - 53, 54, 55. CFL.ca doesn't have percentage by distance and TSN does but it doesn't go back before 2011. But the league site does have an average distance of FG, and by that measure Congi has been among the better ones in several of the seasons he played (his 2 best years have been above 33 and lowest 29.1; by comparison Medlock averaged 31.4, 33.6, and an amazing 37.4 in 2011). It's not as meaningful without knowing the accuracy relative to distance, but it's not like he has a weak placekicking leg.
So punting may be the biggest concern. Congi's not a great one, but he's been better than a 34.5 average (TSN says 38.1 career - very low but not horrible like 34.5). Aside from his first season, he wasn't the primary punter for the Riders.
Before we worry about distance or average, I think the biggest concern is whether his leg can handle the action. And because of that, I expect the Ticats will bring one more kicker to camp.
This job is far from being Congi's to lose.